The present invention relates to a wireless type tire status monitoring apparatus capable of checking the status of a tire, such as tire air pressure while the driver remains in the vehicle, and a receiver for such a tire status monitoring apparatus. More particularly, this invention relates to a tire status monitoring apparatus and a receiver for the tire status monitoring apparatus which specifies which one of transmitters provided on a plurality of tires is a data sender.
Conventionally, a wireless type tire status monitoring apparatus has been used to enable the driver check the statuses of a plurality of tires provided on a vehicle while the driver remains inside the vehicle passenger compartment. Attached to the tires are respective transmitters which measure the air pressure statuses of the associated tires and transmit data by radio indicative of the measured statuses of the tires. The body of the vehicle is provided with a receiver which receives transmitted data from each transmitter.
Each transmitter sends data indicating the status of the associated tire to a single receiver. The receiver should discriminate from which one of the transmitters on the tires has transmitted the data that was received. Therefore, each transmitter is assigned with an inherent ID code. Each transmitter transmits data indicating the status of the associated tire together with the ID code. Based on the ID code, therefore, the receiver can identify the transmitter which is the sender of the data (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-103209).
To allow the receiver to identify the transmitter which is the sender of data, however, the ID codes of the transmitters in the associated tires provided on the vehicle should be registered in the receiver beforehand. What is more, at the time of initial registration, it is necessary to associate the ID codes with the mounting positions of the tires to which the transmitters having the ID codes are respectively mounted. When new tires are mounted on a vehicle or the mounting positions of the tires with respect to the vehicle are changed, therefore, initial registration should always be performed. Such initial registration involving manual work is difficult and takes time.